I. Field
The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to facilitating multiple wireless access technologies over a common terrestrial radio access network.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication, for example, voice, data, and so on can be provided by such wireless communication systems. A typical wireless communication system, or network, can provide multiple users access to one or more shared resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, . . . ). For example, a system can use a variety of multiple access techniques such as Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM), Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), Code Division Multiplexing (CDM), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), and others.
Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system can simultaneously support communication for multiple access terminals. Each access terminal can communicate with one or more base stations through transmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the access terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the access terminals to the base stations. This communication link may be established through a single-in-single-out, multiple-in-single-out, or a multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) system.
Wireless communication systems sometimes employ one or more base stations, each base station providing a coverage area. A typical base station can transmit multiple data streams for broadcast, multicast, and/or unicast services, wherein a data stream may be a stream of data that can be of independent reception interest to an access terminal. An access terminal within the coverage area of such base station can be employed to receive one, more than one, or all the data streams carried by a composite stream. Likewise, an access terminal can transmit data to the base station or another access terminal.
Several advancements are currently considered for Long Term Evolution (LTE) advanced system like Multi User MIMO, higher order MIMO (with 8 transmit and receive antennas), Network MIMO, Femto cells with Restricted Association, Pico cells with range extension, larger bandwidths, and the like. LTE advanced has to support legacy UEs (e.g., LTE release 8 UEs) while providing additional features to new UEs (and legacy UEs when possible). However, supporting all features in LTE can put several constraints on LTE advanced design, limiting potential gains and affecting user experience.